Published on 12, July, 2020
We watch our films, TV shows and read our books. Some might listen to radio plays, play video games or indulge in other forms of entertainment.
There was a thread the other day where someone mentioned Melvin Udell from As Good as it Gets may be on the spectrum.
So in this thread we discuss characters that have never been expressly named as being Autistic but more than likely are in our opinion.
I'll start. The Driver from Drive. He has a specific interest, cars and driving them. Doesn't seem keen on physical contact. Seems awkward around other people. Doesn't make friends easily but when he does he is very loyal. Lots of other hints there imo.
Cadet Sylvia Tilly from Star Trek Discovery. She has lots of traits, extroverted for sure but very direct (awkwardly though) and was introduced as someone who had lots of aversions to fabrics and materials. Has her own quarters because she was deemed to have "special needs". Was clearly bothered when someone slept in her bed even though both beds were identical. Was fast tracked because of her aptitude in specific things but is inept at others, sometimes. I was pretty disappointed when they toned it down in the second half of the series. I was enjoying watching the way the character was sort of Aspie. I found her relatable.
So has anyone else seen a character they have an idea about?
Stevens, the butler in the novel The Remains of the Day. (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Stevens is, an emotionally repressed butler setting off to meet up with a housekeeper and looking back on his time in the household in which they both worked may not be literally concerned with Asperger’s, but for me it illustrates some of the same problems faced by people with the condition without ever feeling patronising or emotionally predictable. An example that really struck a chord with me was the following moment where Stevens attempts to make small talk while staying overnight at an inn. The landlord and his friends are amiably enquiring whether Stevens slept well:‘You won’t get much of a sleep up there, sir. Not unless you’re fond of the sound of old Bob’ – he indicated the landlord – ‘banging away down here right the way into the night. And then you’ll get woken by his missus shouting at him right from the crack of dawn’.Despite the landlord’s protests, this caused loud laughter all round. […] I was struck by the thought […] that some sort of witty retort was required of me. Indeed, the local people were now observing a polite silence, awaiting my next remark. I thus searched my imagination and eventually declared:‘A local variation on the *** crow, no doubt.’At first the silence continued, as though the local persons thought I intended to elaborate further. But then noticing the mirthful expression on my face, they broke into a laugh, though in a somewhat bemused fashion. […]I had been rather pleased with my witticism when it had first come into my head, and I must confess I was slightly disappointed it had not been better received than it was.Conversely, in the film adaptation Anthony Hopkins played the role of Steven’s. Hopkins is on the spectrum.
The forum censor made the witticism fall even flatter:
A local variation on the cöck crow, no doubt.
I never really 'got' Anthony Hopkins in some way. He usually played quite remote characters. (diagnosed aged 70? Interview 1; Interview 2).
This thread reminds me how little fiction I read these days. Not sure I've finished reading a novel for a year. I know Cloudy Mountains said this was mainly about human characters, but I might particularly identify with Spock being half-human, half-Vulcan, so not fitting in anywhere.
Another character that sticks in my mind and might be disqualified for related reasons is Dr Manhattan from Watchmen. He's very, very... aloof. Has real problems connecting despite usual goodwill and ability. Self-diagnosed blogger Andy Gainey has written a good piece about the autistic characteristics of Doctor Manhattan, Rorschach and other characters in the film adaptation.
I also agree with him about effects of crude depictions when a character is specified as, or unconsciously identified as, autistic - do we actually want accurate depictions? In a similar third piece, he lists some films like Punch Drunk Love and Donnie Darko with possibly autistic characters; in those two examples there is also implication of a mental health diagnosis. I suppose along those line could add The 40-year-old Virgin? We should do something towards evening up the gender balance: apparently Sage Noren from The Bridge isn't actually specified as autistic, nor is Suzanne from Orange is the New Black.
(edit: also looking at explicitly autistic women characters. I haven't seen Snow Cake to my shame. Molly sounds dreadful. Interesting-sounding Hungarian film last year called Of Body and Soul.)
Cassandro said:hen a character is specified as, or unconsciously identified as, autistic - do we actually want accurate depictions?
For me, it is the portrayal of "otherness" of the character and their in turn alternate perception of the world around them, as if like an outsider.
Take for example the works of Virginia Woolf - the representations of the internal self and the external self or insider/outsider:
"Woolf repeatedly articulates her desire to be an outsider, yet she recognizes only later in her writing career that she always will also be an insider, and that her insider status results in complicity.."
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3611&context=etd
Clarissa Dalloway (Mrs Dalloway)
"... states that she is both insider and outsider, slicing like a knife through everything and yet standing outside the experience as an observer."
Katharine Hilberry in Alight and Day, one of Virginia Woolf's less known works, is the only daughter of parents who are securely ensconced in the literary establishment of London.
Her romantic mother does not believe in college education for girls, and she has to pursue her studies in mathematics and astronomy secretly at night. Neither of her parents look upon her as anything but a vessel of practical virtues and common sense, and they do not understand her wish to get away from the chaos of feeling at home to the world of order created by facts and figures.
Katharine’s interest in mathematics is established as her individualist reaction to the weight of social convention that she finds so oppressive. She is expected to pour tea and make polite conversation with visitors but (we are expected to believe) she has a private passion which provides a separate life outside this public realm, located in the abstract realm of numerical calculations. The problem is that this private passion is never dramatised or expressed in any way. Indeed, it is simply not mentioned again after its first appearance in the text...
So, not necessarily autistic but realising the pressure to fit in (be an "insider"), but also a reflection of being an "outsider). Maybe Virginia Woolf own outsider self as a feminist fits quite neatly on such societal commentary. Certainly those fictional characters that are not aligned to the norm or expectation are attractive.